Tag Archives: snowed in

January 14, 2025 · 10:03 am

Tuesday 1-14-2025

Riekie – Stephanie Howard – Pinterest

Psychology Today

The picture above, with the road much more steep and the cars gone, looks much like our driveway.

Day 6 of being snowed in. We have really gotten spoiled, being able to leave the house when we want, schedule our day pretty much as we want. Our noses are now definitely “out-of-joint” that we can’t get out or back up our driveway safely yet.

Wilshire Refrigeration

We were scheduled to have an appliance tech come look at – and hopefully FIX – the ice maker in our kitchen fridge. I called this morning and he doesn’t have 4-wheel-drive, or snow tires, and we needed both yesterday and barely made it back up to the house. So now we have rescheduled his visit for the 20th, hoping that by THEN we have our regular steep driveway back…

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Sunshine House

I’ve started a new wood burned piece in my art room. I’m trying to do a close up of the face of an owl. It’s more complicated that my previous stuff, and I’m having a great time trying to get the tools to do what I would like.

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Lauren Emily Wiltse

I AM making progress in my closet. It’s a laborious thing, trying each thing on and deciding if it’s 1) too small, 2) too big, or 3) doesn’t look reasonable for some other reason, and then what to do about it. I WILL keep going until I have things under control in there. I prefer to do almost anything else, though. :0(

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Hope you are having a sunshine-y, pretty day and that you enjoy every minute.

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January 13, 2025 · 9:30 am

Monday 1-13-2025

Karin de Haas via Pinterest
PhotoDune

The Greenwood Schools are open today, which tells me that the rest of the town is definitely thawing out now. We are having some melting too, except our driveway still looks like a ski slope. It’ll be the last to melt.

We’re supposed to gather trash and drive it down to the bottom of our long, steep driveway. I’m going to gather it, but just just try to convince my husband that we should leave it in the garage this time, putting it out for pickup NEXT week.

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Our dog, Amber, has been busily shedding hair all over the place. My husband is taking a nap now, having slept badly last night, so I’m waiting to vacuum until he awakes. There are small tufts of Amber hair moving around over the tiled areas, trying to grab our legs as we walk…. :0)

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Sustainable Baddie

The “clean-out-my-clothes-closet” project is going slowly, but steadily. I rearranged my tops by color, and all my painted tees together, so I can see what I have more easily. Today I’ll try to get rid of more stuff.

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I hope that your day is going well, that you are safe and smiling.

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January 11, 2025 · 10:52 am

Current Conditions in Greenwood AR

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I finally got out and snapped some pics as I was letting Amber out. It’s a balmy 28 degrees now and quite sunny after ‘freezing fog’ warnings this morning.

This is a pretty snow. I really don’t like it when we’re snowed in, though. The main thing is worrying that someone will NEED to come up here in order to help us and they won’t be able to get up our driveway. OR that we NEED to go down, again because of emergency, and we can’t.

You can see Amber out sniffing around, trying to ascertain what’s happened since she was outside last. She only stays out about 5 minutes, taking care of business and wanting to come in where it’s warm and dry.

This is our deck, and the snow is melting here. That’s the only real place I can find any melting yet, though the temperature is forecast to go above freezing today. Fingers crossed.

I’ve decided to try to cheer myself up a bit over the next few (I HOPE!) snowed-in days by finding snow men and snow people creative people have made, and I’ll share them with you.

If you’re in a cold, snowy area today, stay warm and dry!

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January 10, 2025 · 9:02 am

Friday 1-10-2025

Charles Schultz-Peanuts-Lara R-Pinterest

Writing to you on my blog is one of my greatest joys. If I’m not writing a post to you, much of the day I’m trying to find wonderful things to share. I love the communication, the feedback, and the friends I make through doing this. Thank you very much for reading my posts, telling me you like things (or wish I would stop doing others) and staying with me. You are truly one of my blessings.

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We are well and truly snowed in now. It started around 11a.m. yesterday and is still snowing. This picture is of our deck, which is covered with a roof. We have about 6 inches on the ground now with more due before it stops. Adding insult to injury, the temps aren’t going to help much, merely making some liquid on top that will melt a bit, then refreeze over the coming days.

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Of COURSE my husband got an email yesterday, just after the snow started, saying part of the computer equipment he had ordered had been ‘delivered,’ (meaning left at the bottom of the driveway) and he INSISTED we go down and get it. We managed to get one large heavy box and two smaller ones into the back of the truck and were able to get back up the driveway to our house, but it was a close thing. I think if we had tried it a half hour later, we wouldn’t have been able to get back up. We agreed (I THINK) that we won’t go down the driveway for anything else until things are much safer. (I didn’t have to remind him that his insistence last year before it was ‘safe’ resulted in his broken collarbone and 10 weeks of recovery.)

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Southern Living-Getty Images

I did a first session of cleaning out my closet yesterday. I lasted a reasonable amount of time – for me, with my lack of patience for trying on clothes – and made some progress, bringing down a pretty large stack of things to be included in our next donation to the Veterans Thrift Store in Fort Smith. I’ll do another session today.

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WikiHow

In my work in my closet, I found another tee that had a stain that didn’t come out in the laundry, so I’m painting it. I’ll share the results when it’s finished. It’s funny how my sad behavior of spilling food on plain tees results in fun painting sessions. :0)

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I hope that you’re well this morning and that your day is filled with light and laughter.

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January 20, 2024 · 9:27 am

Waiting for Tuesday

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All my life I’ve been waiting – for something.

As a kid, I waited for Christmas, or my birthday, or…

I waited for school to be out.

I waited for summer.

When I fell in love and my to-be husband was in the Marines, I waited for him to come home on leave. I waited for weekends. I waited for him to get out of the Marines. I waited for him to go to the same college as I did. I waited for him to ask me to marry him. I waited for the wedding.

I waited for our children to be born.

I finally decided that I was wishing my life away and that it probably wasn’t the best way to live. I decided to try to live more in the moment, cherishing all that I have.

Now I find myself waiting again. This time it seems kind of silly. I’m waiting for Tuesday. Why?

Our weather is supposed to get above freezing. Things are supposed to start to thaw out. That means we can finally get down our driveway – and back up again. It means freedom to plan our day around what we’d like to do, rather than making the best of things.

My life is a good one. We have gotten through this cold spell, stuck up on our hill, just fine. But I’m WAITING for more – being a greedy lady.

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January 19, 2024 · 10:14 am

No Lunch Bunch Today

cutigers- @cutigs1 on X

Barn owls are my favorite, and this photo simply takes my breath away.

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We had to call our friends and tell them we would not be able to get to Lunch Bunch today. :0( It’s 11 degrees outside right now and the ‘stuff’ on the driveway is solid and quite slippery. We MAY get above freezing Sunday afternoon.

I’m hoping to see if we can gather and drive our trash down to the bottom of the driveway Sunday afternoon before we’re due for either ‘ice and rain’ OR “5-7 inches of snow” Monday, depending on who you’re listening to or reading. Can we have a third choice, please????

We ARE supposed to get a significant warm-up Tuesday. HOOOORAAAAAY! My goal now is to hold everything together until then. We are still fine up on top of our ridge line. Our water pipes have not burst, we have electricity and heat, food, etc.

I woke up to standing water all over the counter around the double sinks in our bathroom upstairs. I called down to my husband. He came up and said something to the effect that, “that’s the setting where it does that” about the faucet we’ve been leaving dripping in his sink during this cold spell. I’m reading this to mean this has happened sometime in the past and he just didn’t say anything. Anyhow, we can’t get anyone up here now. He helped me sop up the water, throw ruined stuff away, and wipe off and put back the salvageable things. Not a great way to start the day…

My husband is enjoying taping and watching some truly awful movies. He enjoys ‘action’ movies, which HE defines in “body counts – the more dead in the most gruesome ways possible, the better.” Needless to say, I’m enjoying computer time, listening to music, reading, playing some in my art room, etc.

I hope that you’re managing to stay sane, dry, warm, and safe during this active winter.

“Every winter has its spring.” ~ H. Tuttle

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January 15, 2024 · 9:46 am

Oh… SNOW…..

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Officially, we got about 2 inches of snow. I say, ‘officially,’ because official statistics usually don’t apply to being on top of our ridge line outside of Greenwood, which is outside of Fort Smith, Arkansas.

However much we got, you can no longer see that we HAVE a concrete pad in front of our porch in the front of our house. You can no longer see that we HAVE a driveway at all. The temperature was 1 degree this morning, according to the local weather office. It’s 8 here now with a wind chill. Even if the sun came out and the temperature went above freezing (not expected until at least Wednesday) our driveway will be the last thing in the city to thaw.

(To the left of the woodpile in this photo is the top of our driveway. 650+ feet down the hill is the street. This is on the north side of our property.)

We are very lucky because our water pipes are still good and haven’t burst. We learned the hard way on that the first winter we were here, with the pipes bursting under the utility room bathroom. We had to have the floor dug up, the pipes repaired, etc. Expensive, well-remembered event.

Now we run a steady stream of water in that bathroom sink. We keep the cabinet doors open and have an electric heater that turns itself on if the temperature goes to a certain level. We have two other bathroom sinks in the house that are in jeopardy and do the cabinet doors and running water thing there, too. Our water bill will be astronomical, but much less expensive than burst pipes.

We have an electric heater in the well house that turns itself on, as well. We noticed a lower water pressure this morning. Usually, I wash my hair in the kitchen sink, with our tankless water heater making the water hot toward the end of my wash. Apparently the water pressure was low enough the tankless wasn’t sensing properly. Anyway, I had a really eye-opening hair wash this morning before the water finally started warming up.

I’m very thankful that we have intact water pipes, running water in the house if we want it. We’re warm and dry. I can complain as I refill the bird feeders on the deck, then come back in to the warm and cozy. Since we’re snowed in until further notice, we’re as well off as anyone could be.

I checked on significant people in my life this morning and all are well. Life is good (but I still have the petition here to sign if you want the rest of the winter scrapped and to move right on to spring.)

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January 12, 2024 · 10:46 am

Ooooh!

Down East Magazine

We’re having what is considered by many (myself included) to be ‘uncivilized’ weather here in Arkansas today – and until further notice.

It’s 24 degrees F. right now. I don’t know what the low was this morning, and it MAY get above freezing today. In fact, we’re supposed to get snow Sunday and Monday, with lows down to -2 one day next week, and only breaking above freezing for highs starting Wednesday or so.

We’re snowed in right now. I had to call my friends and tell them we weren’t coming to Lunch Bunch. Thankfully, we were all in agreement about the insanity of risking falling on our heads. Hopefully, we can meet NEXT Friday. David, the owner of The Pizza Barn where we meet, opens early just for my friend Kay. I called him to let him know we wouldn’t meet today. He said he was glad we weren’t going to risk it.

We’ll stay home in our cozy home, dripping water nightly in the hope that our pipes don’t freeze, and wait this out. I’m more than ready for spring.

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January 25, 2023 · 9:48 am

Wow.

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The snow has stopped. We have 6-8 inches on the ground, the most I’ve seen in the 36 years we’ve lived here. It’s 36 degrees F. now. We had no public power from 4pm until midnight yesterday. I was downstairs reading when it went out again around 2am. We are still without public power. Thank goodness we have a generator and a wood-burning fireplace.

We tried to plan ahead when we built, having some backups for cases like these. We have a gas stove rather than an all-electric home. We have a well. We have a propane-powered generator wired so it turns on automatically when it senses there is no public power. Because of this, we have power and a fire in the fireplace because the generator does not cover heat and air conditioning. So we are good, even though we’re snowed in until further notice.

I just went outside to take a couple of pics. We have BIG branches lying across the driveway. I HOPE we don’t have any TREES there, but I couldn’t see well. So even when the snow melts, we’ll have to chain-saw a bunch of stuff before we can drive down our driveway. In this pic, you can see snow-covered power lines across the pic.

The snow almost covers the brick planters.

If you look carefully, this is the top of the driveway. You can see some BIG branches that have broken off and are hanging down across the driveway. I got depressed looking at it, so just came back in without investigating further. I’m purposely not mentioning it to my husband. He FELL bringing the firewood in last night, landing on his back. He’s okay, but I want him to rest, instead of trying to tackle this problem.

The snow is pretty, but now that we’ve had a chance to look at it and say that, hopefully we can get power and heat back with safety for the good men working right now to make that happen, and that the snow will melt away, becoming only a fond memory.

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February 18, 2021 · 10:13 am

Calories

thatswhatthatmeans.tumblr.com – Shibley Smiles

The saga of small annoyances vs real problems continues in the Lewis household.

A month or so ago, the dish inside the microwave that turns when the food is cooking to ensure even heating quit working. I looked up our records and the microwave was purchased in 2005. We have certainly gotten our money’s worth.

My husband is really good at fixing things. He figured out a way to fix the microwave so the plate turned again. Things went fine until yesterday, when the plate stopped turning again. My husband immediately squashed ideas of getting a new one – assuming we will EVER be able to negotiate our steep driveway and the roads between our home and town again. (We are into our second week of being completely stuck up on top of our ridge line – the first week due to ice and this week due to snow. We still have about 8 inches on the ground, so we MAY be able to get out by NEXT week some time if the sun stays out and the temperatures warm up from the current 15 degrees F.)

My husband went to work on the microwave again and we tested it this morning. It ran – and the plastic ‘thingie’ in the center of the floor of the microwave turned – for about 3 seconds and then the whole microwave shut off. It is now clear that the microwave is completely dead this time, no matter how smart or inventive he is.

I explain all this because we have been thoroughly enjoying frozen dinners from two new places in town – Real Food, and Stu’s Clean Cookin.’ These are individual dinners, portion controlled, healthy, and delicious. We have quickly become spoiled.

“I” will need to get inventive now on defrosting these on the counter, then transferring them to oven dishes, then figuring out how long – and at what temperature – to heat them up. In the meantime, I’ll cook a roast for tonight in the crock pot.

As I began when I started this post, this is a small annoyance vs the very real and dangerous problems many good people in the United States are facing right now. I feel a bit guilty even mentioning something as small as this. The pandemic, cabin fever, and the trying to diet have all combined to make me a rather gripe-y lady.

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February 16, 2021 · 9:11 am

Snow “From Heer to Thar…”

Gifer – Kizlikree

This cute video could be our dog, Amber, running across our front yard. I just let her in again. She is having a great time in our snow. We can’t tell we even HAVE sidewalks or a driveway. All demarcation lines have been thoroughly buried. The new snow we got (5″) actually helped me stay on my feet while I cautiously made my way across the deck to our bird feeder and filled it this morning. It is -6 degrees right now. The sun is shining, but we’ll be lucky if the temperature makes it to 20 today. We have ‘heavy snow’ predicted for this-evening-into-tomorrow. It’s all pretty, but I really don’t like being snowed in. We MAY start to thaw by Friday.

All this whining done, I’m VERY grateful we have power and water. Our home is warm and dry on the inside. Our animals are inside with us. Abby, our very independent cat, prefers to sleep outside in our garage in her ‘cat cube.’ We brought it in last night and kept her in the utility room bathroom, along with her litter box. I’m pleased that she did fine.

I’m also grateful to be thoroughly spoiled, drinking a cup of coffee while enjoying having Internet service and being able to type this note to you.

I hope you are safe, dry, and happy today. Eventually, February will be over for another year!

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February 15, 2021 · 10:22 am

Still Snowing

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I found this beautiful .gif yesterday and wanted to share it.

It’s snowing harder again. It’s supposed to stop by 1pm, but I don’t think Mother Nature has received the memo yet, or maybe is ignoring it. We’re supposed to have another wave of snow Wednesday. It was -1 degree F. this morning, and now is a balmy 0 with big fat flakes of snow. I love the prettiness of it, but I would really like it to stop. Our heaters in the well house (electric and propane) were both working well this morning. We also have an automatic extra heater in our utility room bathroom cabinet that keeps our pipes in there from freezing. I’m glad we have a generator in case it’s needed.

We’ve been enjoying comfort food – soup and crackers for lunch yesterday and beef stew from the crock pot for dinner. It’s nice and warm and dry in our home, and for that I’m truly grateful. Even though it’s only needed psychologically and emotionally, I’ve been enjoying having the heating pad in my recliner on and then curling up under my throw – making a kind of ‘sandwich’ for a nap, a cup of coffee on my warmer on the table beside my chair. SPOILED LADY – and GLAD OF IT!!! :0)

I checked my seed starter tray this morning. I have the TEENIEST, TINIEST hard-to-see sprouts in a few places! I was ridiculously pleased to see them. I spritzed the tray with water and put the transparent top back on. We’re not getting much sun, so I don’t know what will happen. It’s wonderful to anticipate possibilities, though.

I’m not sure what the day will hold. I hope we can ALL stay safe, warm, and dry.

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